The invention relates to an armor-piercing projectile. French Pat. No. 1002092 describes armor-piercing projectiles which have a hollow charge portion arranged in front of a hard core inside the projectile relative to the direction of flight of the projectile. Such known projectiles have good armor piercing capabilities with respect to conventional armor plating. The ignition of the hollow charge in these known armor-piercing projectiles is effected by means of an impact igniter, disposed in the head of the projectile, which releases the ignition process upon impacting on the target.
However, with respect to the more modern armor platings, which are referred to in the art as "active armor", the armor-piercing capability of the afore-described known armor-piercing projectile has been found insufficient, so that targets having such "active armor" can not be effectively combatted with these conventional armor-piercing projectiles.